Booking.com boss bemoans ‘lack of common sense’ in Brussels

Booking.com’s chief executive has bemoaned the European Union’s “lack of common sense” surrounding regulations tied to market competition.

The online travel group was designated a “gatekeeper” by the European Commission in May, a label Brussels uses for companies that have a potentially damaging high market share.

It meant Booking.com joined the likes of Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft in being subject to greater red tape, aimed at evening out the playing field and reining in monopolistic companies.

Boss Glenn Fogel argued customers were losing out as a result. “We have to spend a lot of time, effort and money because of the regulations. And that money and effort could go into a better service by hiring more people and building technology advancements,” he told The Sunday Times.

Fogel, who runs Booking.com and its parent company Booking Holdings, also said the EU had picked too narrow a category when assessing the travel firm’s dominance. It has chosen, when examining market share, to consider only the online travel-intermediary market, as opposed to the travel market as a whole.

Consumers splashed out around $3trillion in total on travel last year, only five per cent of which was via Booking’s brands, according to Fogel. “Five. Per. Cent!” he said. “It’s a blip.”

The US businessman has in the past complained the Nasdaq-listed company is being hit with legal and regulatory decisions at both a national and EU level.

In July, the Spanish antitrust regulator, CNMC, fined Booking.com $448m for abusing its dominant market position in the country for the last five years.

Regulators in Brussels last year blocked Booking’s $1.8bn takeover of Sweden’s Etraveli Group, citing competition concerns.